Register Now for CCDI’s Summer Fuse 2024

Join us!  The Connecting Communities Digital Initiative (CCDI) will host its third Annual Summer Fuse event on Monday, June 24, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT. This virtual event will feature presentations from our 2024 CCDI Award Recipients, a Community-Engaged AI Panel, and CCDI Junior Fellows and AHHA intern.   

Click here to register for the event!  

CCDI awardees are located throughout the U.S. and their projects re-mix and re-use Library materials to highlight a variety of topics that relate to the lived experiences of multifaceted communities of color. Read below for an overview of the day and learn about the type of projects our awardees will be sharing.   

Event Schedule 

• 12:15 p.m. – 1 p.m. EDT: Artists and Scholars in Residence Conversations
  • CCDI Artists/Scholars in Residence Allie Martin and Maya Freelon discuss their respective projects with guest speakers. 
    • Allie Martin, Sampling Black Life 
    • Maya Freelon, Whippersnappers 

• 1:15 p.m. – 2:10 p.m. EDT: Libraries, Archives and Museums Presentations and Panel
  • CCDI’s Library, Archive and Museum awardees, DC Public Library, Friends of Tijeras Pueblo, and Hoboken Public Library share their projects and answer questions from the audience.  
    • DC Public Library (Washington D.C.), Documenting the Ethiopian Communities of DC  
    • Friends of Tijeras Pueblo (Tijeras, New Mexico), The Ancestral Tiwa World Connected to the Present: Tijeras Pueblo in Context 
    • Hoboken Public Library (Hoboken, New Jersey), The Puerto Rican Experience in Hoboken and America  

• 2:20 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. EDT: Higher Education Presentations and Panel
  • CCDI’s Higher Education Awardees Angelo State University, Trustees of Indiana University, and University of Houston-Downtown share their projects and answer questions from the audience.  
    • Angelo State University (San Angelo Texas), All History is Local: Celebrating t the People of West Texas  
    • Trustees of Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana), Connecting Collections: Indigenous Identities in Edward Curtis and Joseph Dixon Materials  
    • University of Houston-Downtown (Houston, Texas), Discovering Afro-Latino Heritage: A Reflective Story Map Project to Enhance Student Belonging  

• 3:25 p.m. – 4:25 p.m. EDT: Community-Engaged AI Panel + Q&A
  • A panel of artists and scholars will join us to discuss the possible transformative potential of AI when harnessed with a community-centered approach. We will explore how AI technologies can be utilized to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of communities of color and how we can use AI tools to empower, engage, and address the unique needs of diverse communities. 

• 4:30 p.m. – 4:50 p.m. EDT: Interns Project Share-outs
  • Hear from CCDI’s AHHA and Junior Fellow interns about their projects and experience with the Library.  

Attendees are encouraged to submit questions in advance to [email protected]. Additionally, attendees may request ADA accommodations at (202) 707‐6362 or [email protected]. 

CCDI is part of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path program with support from the Mellon Foundation. This program provides fellowships and grants to individuals and institutions for projects that innovate, imagine, and remix Library materials to highlight the stories and perspectives of Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color from any of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and its territories and commonwealths (Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands). Learn more about CCDI here. 

For more about the Library’s historic Of the People initiative, click here.